  | On Sunday, March 27th, at 5:30 p.m., WCBS-TV will be running their periodic American Health Front medical news program in which I will be featured along with 11 other health practitioners who will be discussing various health issues. In my portion of the short segment, I will be discussing the importance of prevention in periodontal disease in addition to all the current technology being employed. I hope you will tune in and enjoy the short segment. As always, your feedback will be appreciated. Yours truly, Victor M. Sternberg, D.M.D. Dental Office of: Victor M. Sternberg, D.M.D., PC Westchester Center of Periodontal and Implant Excellence 141 North State Road Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510 EMAIL: officesternberg@verizon.net WEBSITE: www.DrSaveMyTeeth.com Office: 914-762-1885 Fax: 914-762-1880 
| ||
|
0 Comments
HYPNOSIS: A TOOL THAT CAN HELP CHANGE A LIFE, ELIMINATE A HABIT & TRULY MAKE A DIFFERENCE11/26/2015  Mr. Bob Pargament at the Westchester Hypnosis Center Approximately five years ago I attended a seminar where Mr. Robert Pargament, a trained hypnotist, lectured to our dental community. He showed videos of patients who underwent abdominal surgery with hypnosis as the only anesthetic. This could not help but fascinate one who is constantly dealing with anxiety and fear of pain in a dental practice. I pursued Mr. Pargament to explore this modality to see if he could make a difference in the lives of my patients, colleagues and friends. I discovered through his skillful application of hypnosis, he could help individuals stop smoking, lose weight, control anxiety and in one case involving a colleague who had a fear of flying, Mr. Pargament was able to completely ameliorate that anxiety in several sessions to the point where he now flies frequently. Mr. Pargament has been practicing his art for many years. I invite you to listen to the podcast which was part of my weekly radio show on WFAS AM by clicking on this link or copying and pasting into your web browser: http://www.drsavemyteeth.com/podcast/how-to-overcome-anxiety-through-hypnotism The second half of the podcast involves Mr. Pargament's approach to helping individuals with a myriad of issues. In a world that is complicated and fraught with many difficulties where anxiety seems to rule and where changing behavior becomes for many a monumental task, I would urge you to explore the possibility of using hypnosis as an aid. Robert Pargament Westchester Hypnosis Center 600 Mamaroneck Avenue; Suite 457 Harrison, NY 10528 Email: WestchesterHypnosis@gmail.com Phone: 914-488-4766 Toll Free: 800-675-7583 Website: www.WestchesterHypnosis.com Please listen to the podcast because I believe it will expand upon the things I've discussed. As always, I appreciate your feedback. Yours truly, Victor M. Sternberg, D.M.D. Dental Office of: Victor M. Sternberg, D.M.D., PC Westchester Center of Periodontal and Implant Excellence 141 North State Road Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510 Email: officesternberg@verizon.net Website: www.DrSaveMyTeeth.com Office Phone: 914-762-1885 Office Fax: 914-762-1880
From 9AM to 10AM, every Friday you can hear Dr. Victor Sternberg on AM 1230 WFAS "Distinguished Doctor's Show" hosted by Bob Marrone. We're excited about this new day and time, which we feel will appeal to morning commuters. Be sure to listen while we're live on the air, so that you can call in and ask the doctor your questions.  Dr. Victor Sternberg, D.M.D., PC at WFAS AM 1230 Meet Dr. Sternberg and his staff at Westchester Center for Periodontal & Implant Excellence. Make your appointment today!  I recently completed the installation of solar panels on the roof of my home. It’s something I have thought about for a long time. I will expand on the reasons for my decision but first let me discuss what’s happened in the solar industry. Solar energy has been to a great deal unaffordable to a significant degree for most consumers until now. Companies have entered the market place with leasing arrangements rather than purchasing arrangements which makes it relatively painless with almost no out-of-pocket expenses for installation. The leasing arrangements basically let the company own the solar panels for 20 years. Instead of paying ConEdison, you pay them a reduced percentage of your energy bill that you’re currently paying ConEd and this percentage is fixed for the next two decades. Essentially in my case, with small upfront costs, which is totally reimbursed by the government as a tax credit, I have no out-of-pocket expenses but will reduce my electricity energy costs by approximately 40%. There are other arrangements where you can actually buy the panels and get tax credits to reduce their costs. This is a solution you may want to consider if you’re going to be in your home for a number of years. Solar panels once installed do not increase the assessment of the house. By law, they cannot increase your taxes because of them but it will make a market increase in the value of your home when you sell it. Because the costs of energy are fixed for 20 years, you can only imagine what that will mean in the coming decade since ConEd costs have risen considerably on an annual basis going back for the last 12 years. Just check your bill; you will understand. The energy they provide you during the daytime depending upon your usage will often exceed the usage during the day thereby your meter will go backwards. This will reduce or eliminate the cost of energy you would have in the evenings when the sun is not shining or on cloudy days. Thus for zero out-of-pocket expense, your electrical energy costs can become a much smaller portion of your budget. Now for the reasons why I went solar; they are different than many of you might think. As you are well aware, the environmental issues regarding climate change or global warming has dominated the world stage for a number of years. It’s a complicated issue for which there are good arguments on either side whether this is a man-made problem and whether it’s even correctable at this point. My personal reasons for going solar and getting a plug-in car have more to do with geo-politics than they do with the climate. As you are well aware of what’s happening in Russia and the Middle East, instability is threatening to escalate. Russia particularly is dependent for a great deal of their economic input from energy that it sells to the rest of Europe. Europe on the other hand is dependent upon Russian gas and oil to the point where their foreign policies are dictated to a great deal by the fear of loss of Russian fuel. Russia understands this resulting in a certain paralysis on the world stage regarding Russian actions. The Middle East in turmoil and this appears to be getting more tumultuous. We should never forget the fact that much of the money that comes to finance Islamic fundamentalists flows directly or indirectly from money generated by Middle Eastern oil. Our foreign policy and the foreign policy of much of the Western world is dictated by our dependence on imported oil. The failure of the U.S. government to deal with this issue since 1973 when we had our first oil shock has put the entire Western world in a very vulnerable position. Alternative energy sources such as solar are just beginning to become available to us in a cost-effective manner. Cars are getting greater gas mileage and now the plethora of electrical cars is becoming technologically feasible and affordable. The use of solar energy to charge up these cars can have a game-changing effect upon our use of oil, petroleum or gas to fuel our automobiles and trucks. Thus, going solar and then utilizing that electricity to energize our vehicles can ultimately have a profound effect upon U.S. and Western dependence on oil sources which are disingenuous and at worst could have catastrophic impacts on stability and world peace. In my particular case, I chose a company called Verengo Solar which is the largest installer of residential solar panels. My experience with them has been excellent. If you have any interest, please feel free to contact me. As always, I appreciate your feedback. Yours truly, Dr. Victor M. Sternberg, D.M.D.
As I write this note, I’ve just said good-bye to one of my patients who is 95 years old who just left the office after having her mouth examined and her teeth cleaned. Mrs. C. has been coming here for 25 years and has maintained all of her teeth that she presented with at the age of 70 and continues to enjoy eating a rich diet replete with vegetables, pasta and topped off by a glass of red wine every evening. Perhaps this is the "fountain of youth" diet. She was preceded yesterday by an 85 year old gentleman who has replaced a number of his teeth with implants and has maintained his other teeth with excellent care on his part as well as the contribution we have made to his dental health. Upon leaving, Mr. V. commented that he tells his kids: Take care of your teeth because when you get as old as I am, in his case 85, having a healthy mouth enables you to eat anything you want" which seems to contribute mightily to the enjoyment of the later years. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I now have 400 patients over 80 years of age, 90 patients over the age of 85, 40 patients over 90 years of age, and several patients over 95 years of age. A number of years ago, the Mayo Clinic proclaimed that having a healthy mouth can add 10 years to your life. This was their observation. I can only second that many times over by the wealth of remarkably healthy and rigorous octogenarians and nonagenarians who populate my office on a daily basis. Sincerely, Dr. Victor M. Sternberg, D.M.D.
I recently encountered a potentially nutritional bombshell of a book. My personal physician, who I recently visited, had lost a significant amount of weight. Upon asking him what that was about, he mentioned that he stopped eating wheat based upon the book he had read, "Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health" written by William Davis, M.D. Dr. Davis is a cardiologist who had done extensive research on nutrition as it relates to the wheat products we currently eat. It appears that about 60 years ago, wheat was altered genetically to make it grow more abundantly helping feed much of the Third World. However, according to Dr. Davis, the genetic alteration has markedly changed the properties of wheat. He believes and he documents well a rapid rise in obesity, intestinal diseases and other medical ails that can be directly related to the ingestion of wheat products. Wheat products, which for many of us are the staple of our diet whether it’s through breads or pasta, is implicated in the rapid rise of diabetes, celiac disease, heart disease as well as a link to Alzheimer’s. The book is extremely informative, well written and documented scientifically to the point where I think it is a worthy read for all of us who are interested in good health and longevity. On a personal level, I’ve become wheatless after reading this book. It has not been easy since a great staple of my diet was wheat products but it’s getting easier with each passing day. I strongly suggest the ingestion of "Wheat Belly" by Dr. Davis as an alternative to the wheat we ingest. This book can be purchased on www.amazon.com by following this link Wheat Belly As always, I appreciate your comments. Yours truly, Dr. Victor M. Sternberg, D.M.D.
I want to introduce you all to “Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution”, an important book on food, diet and health written by Dr. Steven Gundry. The book is somewhat unique in its approach to food and health given that Dr. Gundry made his living bypassing heart blockages and now writes about how to avoid his services as stated by Dr. Oz. What Dr. Gundry has done, both by his medical experience and his personal experience, has provided an intellectual and scientific approach to preventing disease and remaining healthy. He fully recognizes the role of genes in disease as well as weight gain and discusses it at length. He discusses how to overcome your genetic propensity for weight gain and disease and extend your life beyond what it would be ordinarily. I cannot recommend more strongly a book that is both full of scientific and biological information. It discusses a very effective method of weight reduction. I’ve introduced this book to a patient and one of my staff members and have watched two people who could not lose weight, one of whom has significant cardiovascular disease, underwent bypass surgery and is diabetic; and the other, due to a previous medical problem, gained a significant amount of weight and was unable to lose it. Both individuals, utilizing Dr. Gundry’s book and recommendations, for the first time in their lives have made significant weight reductions without hunger. Watching this happen in front of my eyes with people who I have provided this information to has just confirmed what I believe from reading the book. It is a must-read. Not only does Dr. Gundy discuss how to lose weight, but in a good part of the book, he talks about how to live a long life using a totally different diet to maintain weight for the long haul. Finally, the book is filled with wonderful dietary recipes that make eating well and staying healthy easier than it has ever been. Again, the title of the book is “Dr. Gundry’s Diet Evolution” and it is available at: www.amazon.com I’m wishing you all a wonderful Holiday Season and hopefully one that’s filled with a diet that will keep you healthy. Yours truly, Dr. Victor Sternberg
There is a famous quote by Henny Youngman in which he’s says "If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself. This is reinforced within my periodontal practice as I did a chronology search of my practice. Low and behold, I discovered that I have 165 currently active patients who are 80-85 years old. In addition, there are 88 patients between the ages of 85-90. And finally, and most surprisingly, there are 35 patients between the ages of 90-100; with our oldest patient topping out at 100 years of age. Interestingly enough, there are a number of patients in their 90’s who are employed on a full-time basis. These wonderful facts have made it possible for me to know some of my patients for decades and have the privilege of watching them enter their golden years and still be able to eat well and smile comfortably. One of the dental aspects related to these numbers is how many people among this list have many if not all of their teeth, or have had lost teeth replaced with dental implants. In addition, I have observed that patients who continue throughout their lifetime to take good care of their mouths have a much higher likelihood of keeping their teeth into their 8th, 9th and 10th decade. Finally, since it seems that long life is becoming the standard rather than the unusual, it behooves us all, particularly those who are younger, to make the commitment to good oral health since there is a very good likelihood in the 21st century that many of the youngsters under 80 will someday be centenarians. That being a fact, it is more important than ever to realize that having an intact healthy mouth has a major impact on your mental and physical health. The ability to eat all types of food and enjoy the confidence of speaking with your own teeth is immeasurable. Dr. Victor S. Sternberg
For many years, I suffered from severe neck and lower back pain and was hospitalized once due to a herniated disc in my lower back. I sought out numerous orthopaedic and neurological consults for these periods of debilitating neck and back pain. X-rays revealed herniated discs in both my neck and lower back. The medical profession explained my pain as being due to the displacement of these discs with the resultant episodic severe pain. Six years ago, after having attempted to be treated medically, I was advised by a physical therapist that ultimately my recurrent problem needed to be dealt with by increasing my flexibility. He recommended strongly that yoga would be the answer for me. I had been seeing the physical therapist on an almost monthly basis to relieve muscle spasms which would occur during work or upon rising in the morning. Having a patient in my practice who is a massage therapist and a trained yoga instructor, I sought her expertise. She began to visit me weekly. The sessions focused on stretching and flexibility to relieve the tightness in my hamstring muscles, lower back and shoulders. During this six-year period, I only suffered one episode of recurrent back pain and that was during a five-week span where, due to our schedules, we had no yoga appointments. Outside of that period, I have been completely free of pain for the first time in 30 years. Thanks to its restorative aspects, not only did yoga provide me with flexibility and pain relief, but also enabled me to obtain a deep level of relaxation within a few minutes, at times simulating a good night’s sleep, I would urge all my patients to seek out yoga in order to improve their physical well being, eliminate pain and inflexibility, as well as provide a level of tranquility which is difficult to obtain in our often stressful lives. Eva Brenish, the yoga instructor, has shared with me one of her simple exercises to relieve stress using breathing techniques and I am enclosing her admonitions in this Newsletter. I cannot urge you strongly enough to seek out individuals such as Eva Brenish to improve the quality of your life both physically and emotionally. One last thought, I am also enclosing an article from the New York Times for your review. It is clear that fitness in middle age can have enormous effects in terms of quality of life in later years. Please enjoy the article and hopefully it will help motivate us all to put on a pair of sneakers and get out for a good, rigorous walk. Dr. Victor M. Sternberg FINDING BALANCE THROUGH BREATH IN A COMPLICATED WORLD Written by: Eva Brenish As humans we need to be reminded that we are a part of, rather than separate from the whole. We are but a microcosm of the macrocosm. Often we see ourselves as different from nature, thus disconnecting from our own true nature. Many of us are truly blessed with an abundance of people and things in our lives , yet find ourselves unhappy and addicted to; anti depressants, Facebook, work , food; the list goes on. We seek balance in our lives and peace in our hearts. Breath is the basis for life. The first thing we do when we are born is breathe in, the last breath we take is an out breath. The moments in between are a series of taking in or inspiration (nourishing breath) and breathing out, expiration (liberating or letting go breath). Notice the times when you hold your breath. Are you excited, frightened, angry? Breath: right under our noses is the greatest teacher. The bridge to the limbic or emotional brain, it is a way to calm the turbulence of the mind. Let's begin accessing our breath in the center:
Eva Brenish is a Holistic Health Counselor, Certified yoga teacher and licensed massage therapist She may be contacted at evamarieb@verizon.net, (914) 941 8458 or (914) 374 2668. New York Times Article September 5, 2012 The Benefits of Middle-Age Fitness By Gretchen Reynolds Americans are living longer, with our average life expectancy now surpassing 78 years, up from less than 74 years in 1980. But we are not necessarily living better. The incidence of a variety of chronic diseases, like diabetes and heart disease, has also been growing dramatically, particularly among people who are not yet elderly. The convergence of those two developments has led to what some researchers have identified as a “lengthening of morbidity.” That means we are spending more years living with chronic disease and ill health — not the outcome that most of us would hope for from a prolonged life span. But a notable new study published last week in Archives of Internal Medicine suggests that a little advance planning could change that prospect. Being or becoming fit in middle age, the study found, even if you haven’t previously bothered with exercise, appears to reshape the landscape of aging. For the study, researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the Cooper Institute in Dallas gathered medical records for 18,670 middle-aged men and women who’d visited the Cooper Clinic (the medical arm of the Cooper Institute) for a checkup beginning in 1970. The 18,670 men and women, with an average age of 49, were healthy and free of chronic diseases at their first checkup, when they all took a treadmill test to determine their aerobic fitness. Based on the results of this initial fitness test, the researchers divided the group into five fitness categories, with the bulk of the people residing, like most Americans, in the least-fit section. Then, in a first-of-its-kind data comparison, the researchers checked the same individuals’ Medicare claim records (with permission) from 1999 through 2009, by which time most of the participants were in their 70s or 80s. What they found was that those adults who had been the least fit at the time of their middle-age checkup also were the most likely to have developed any of eight serious or chronic conditions early in the aging process. These include heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and colon or lung cancer. The adults who’d been the most fit in their 40s and 50s often developed many of the same conditions, but notably their maladies appeared significantly later in life than for the less fit. Typically, the most aerobically fit people lived with chronic illnesses in the final five years of their lives, instead of the final 10, 15 or even 20 years. While this finding might not seem, on its face, altogether positive — the fit and the unfit alike generally became infirm at some point, the Medicare records showed — the results should be viewed as encouraging, says Dr. Benjamin Willis, a staff epidemiologist at the Cooper Institute who led the study. “I’m 58, and for me, the results were a big relief,” Dr. Willis said. That’s because, he points out, the results show, in essence, that being physically fit “compresses the time” that someone is likely to spend being debilitated during old age, leaving the earlier post-retirement years free of serious illness and, at least potentially, imbued with a finer quality of life. Interestingly, the effects of fitness in this study statistically were greater in terms of delaying illness than in prolonging life. While those in the fittest group did tend to live longer than the least fit, perhaps more important was the fact that they were even more likely to live well during more of their older years. Of course, aging is a complicated process and extremely individualized, with the onset or absence of illness representing only one element in quality of life after age 65 or so. But it is a big element, says Dr. Jarett Berry, an assistant professor of internal medicine at U.T. Southwestern and an author of the study. “And since it appears to be associated with midlife fitness, it is amenable to change,” he continues. While aerobic fitness is partly determined by genetics, and to that extent, the luck of the universe, much of a person’s fitness, especially by middle age, depends on physical activity, Dr. Berry says. So, exercising during midlife, especially if you haven’t been, can pay enormous later-life benefits, he says. “Our study suggests that someone in midlife who moves from the least fit to the second-to-the-least-fit category of fitness gets more benefit,” in terms of staving off chronic diseases, than someone who moves to the highest fitness grouping from the second-highest. And moving out of that least-fit category requires, he says, “only a small dose of exercise,” like 20 or 30 minutes of walking on most days of the week. “You don’t have to become an athlete,” says Dr. Willis, who himself has little time for exercise but tries to fit in a daily walk. “Just getting up off the couch is key.” This post has been revised to reflect the following correction: Correction: September 5, 2012 An earlier version of this article erroneously included cancer in a list of chronic diseases whose incidence is rising in the United States.
As all of you are aware, despite the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding Obamacare, the escalating cost of health care as well as health-care access represents a very significant and severe challenge to the economic viability of both American citizens and our different layers of government. A recent report on the costs of health care in Massachusetts since Romney-care was instituted, has shown a rapid rise in the cost per patient for treatment as well as a significant rise in health care premiums to the highest level in the United States. Increasing health-care access seemed to only drive up costs rather than the converse.
There is no doubt that we have developed better and more effective ways to treat illness. Unfortunately, we’ve made little or no progress with the far greater challenge of implementing and effectively preventing disease. A recent estimate by a healthcare think tank estimates that 75% of health-care costs are incurred by illnesses that are preventable by lifestyle changes. The health institute explored the major causes and expenses incurred by various diseases that represent the majority of our healthcare expenditures:
Unless we deal with preventing rather than treating illnesses, health-care costs have the potential to bankrupt us at a local, State, and Federal level as well as making health-care costs unaffordable for many if not all of us. Among the things we must focus on for preventing disease are:
It’s more than time that we begin to focus on individual responsibility for all of our health care issues in order to minimize the tragedy of illnesses that can be prevented. I have personally lost too many beautiful patients to remain silent on the issue of preventing disease. Dr. Victor M. Sternberg, D.M.D.
As we now approach and enjoy the holiday season, our office is busy taking care of our patients, helping them to maintain a healthy, beautiful smile.
On a personal note, I wanted to share that my son underwent a very difficult, and fortunately, a successful, bypass surgery at a very early age. I would like to share with all of you that heart disease can be undetected until it is potentially fatal. Blood tests, targeting towards heart disease, a stress test and careful monitoring of blood chemistries can make a huge difference in detecting heart disease before it can be tragic. I urge all of you as a New Year's resolution to receive a physical exam including a thorough and complete cardiac workup to ensure that next year, at this time, you are still enjoying the gifts of life. The best possible gift you can give yourself is a clean bill of health. I will try, in the coming year, to provide you with as much information as possible to help provide you and your families a healthy, attractive mouth. Our electronic communications will continue to expand into something you can share with family members and friends. I wish you all a healthy, peaceful and joyous holiday season. |
From the desk of...
|
||||||||||||||||
RSS Feed
